Method and apparatus for lifting one end of a roll of carpeting or the like

ABSTRACT

A portable hoist comprising a frame having two legs that converge upwardly, and a winch at the upper end, having a depending lift cord. The legs of the frame are placed one on either side of a long, heavy roll of carpeting at one end thereof, and the lift cord is attached to a pole, or pipe, that is inserted into the roll. As the one end of the roll is lifted, its other end bears on the ground at a point spaced laterally outward from the two legs and the roll thus serves as a third leg to stabilize the hoist.

United States Patent [191 Kirkpatrick METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LIFTING ONE END OF A ROLL OF CARPETING OR THE LIKE [76] Inventor: George A. Kirkpatrick, PO. Box

693, Ridgecrest, Calif. 93555 [22] Filed: April 17, 1970 [21] Appl. No.: 29,426

[52] US. Cl ..254/139.l, 214/2.5, 214/DIG. 3 [51] Int. Cl ..B66c 23/60 [58] Field ofSearch...254/l39.1, 145, 142, 139, 120,

254/131; 2l4/2.5, 3.1, DIG. l, DIG. 3, DIG.

[ Feb. 13,1973

OTHER PUBLICATIONS Item Make Barrel-Handling Tool From Scrap from World Oil, Vol. 141, No. 6, Nov. 1955, page 222.

Primary Examiner-Even C. Blunk Assistant Examiner-Merle F. Mafiei An0rneyHerbert E. Kidder 5 7] ABSTRACT A portable hoist comprising a frame having two legs that converge upwardly, and a winch at the upper end, having a depending lift cord. The legs of the frame are placed one on either side of a long, heavy roll of carpeting at one end thereof, and the lift cord is attached to a pole, or pipe, that is inserted into the roll. As the one end of the roll is lifted, its other end bears on the ground at a point spaced laterally outward from the two legs and the roll thus serves as a third leg to stabilize the hoist.

1 Claim, 5 Drawing Figures PATENTEDFEBIBHYS v 3,716,216

I N VE N TOR. GEORGE/4. Mew/4720 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LIFTING ONE END OF A ROLL OF CARPETING OR THE LIKE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to portable hoists, and more particularly to a folding hoist that enables a man to single-handedly lift one end of a very heavy roll of carpeting, padding linoleum, or the like, so that it can be placed on a wheeled dolly to be moved from one place to another.

Among carpet wholesalers, retailers, and installers, there has long been a need for a light-weight, portable hoist that could be carried around by one man or stowed in the back of a pick-up truck, which could be used to lift one end of a very heavy roll of carpeting, so that the roll can be placed on a dolly. Such rolls often weigh up to 1,000 lbs., and the average weight of a full roll is from 500 to 700 lbs. It is thus impossible for even the strongest man to lift one end of a roll high enough so that a dolly can be wheeled under it.

Heretofore, the usual way of lifting one end of a roll of carpeting to get it onto a dolly has been to get two or three strong men to lift the one end, while another man wheels the dolly into place. Sometimes, fork lifts or other powered vehicles having lifting devices on them are used in warehouses or other places where large numbers of rolls of carpeting are handled all the time, but while this may solve the problem for some large wholesalers, there are thousands of smaller carpet companies around the country which are not equipped with such machinery, and which must therefore rely on manpower to handle the rolls of carpeting. It is for these individuals and firms that the present invention was devised.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The primary object of the invention is to provide a light-weight, portable, easy-to-use hoist which can be used by one man to lift one end of the heaviest roll of carpeting and to hold it in the elevated position while he wheels a dolly into place beneath the roll. Thus, one man is easily able to do what has formerly required the strenuous efforts of several men. As a matter of fact, even a petite woman is able to lift a roll of carpeting weighing 600 or 700 pounds, and put it onto a dolly, using the invention.

Another object of the invention is to provide a hoist that is simple and inexpensive to manufacture, besides being extremely compact and light in weight, so that it can be carried around byhand or stowed in the back of a pick-up truck.

A further object of the invention is to provide a new method of lifting rolls of carpeting, in which a twolegged hoist is connected to the one end of the roll, and the roll of carpeting serves as a third leg to stabilize the hoist.

These objects are achieved in the present invention by means of a portable hoist comprising apair of legs which are connected together at their upper ends for relative swinging movement, so that they can be closed together for compactness. Mounted on the upper end of the hoist is a crank-operated winch having a depending lift cord with a hook on it that engages one end of a pole inserted into the center of the roll. The two legs of the hoist are placed one on either side of the roll, and when the winch is operated, the one end of the roll is lifted from the ground, while the other end remains on the ground and serves as a third leg to stabilize the hoist. The winch is of the self-locking type, so that it can be released at any time and will hold the roll in the elevated position, while the operator wheels a dolly into position under the roll.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment thereof, with reference to the accompanying drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the hoist in operation, showing one end of a roll of carpeting being lifted;

FIG. 2 is an end view of the same;

FIG. 3 is a side elevation of the portable hoist;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary view of the top end of the hoist, showing certain details of construction; and

FIG. 5 is a side view of the hoist and roll of carpeting, as they appear when one end of the roll is lifted high enough to permit wheeling a dolly under the roll DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT:

In the drawings, the reference numeral 10 designates the invention in its entirety. As can be seen from the several views in the drawing, the invention comprises a two-legged hoist having legs 12 and 14 which converge upwardly and are connected together at their upper ends by a bracket 16. This bracket consists of two generally triangularly-shaped plates 17 and 18, disposed on opposite sides of the legs and rigidly connected to leg 14 by means of two longitudinally spaced bolts 20. The other leg 12 is pivotally connected to the plates 17, 18 by a pivot bolt 22, and is swingable with respect to leg 14 between a position more or less parallel to the latter, as in FIG. 4, and a position of upward convergence, as in FIGS. 1 and 2. The upper end of leg 12 is cut off at an angle to form a slanted surface 24 that lies flat against the inner face of leg 14 when the legs are spread apart as far as they will go. A chain 26 is connected to the lower ends of the legs 12, 14 and this limits the distance that the legs can be spread apart.

Mounted on the top end of the frame formed by legs 12, 14 is a winch 28. The winch has a U-shaped housing 30 which is connected by bolts 32 to the bracket 16. A handle 34 on the winch drives a drum 36 through the usual speed-reduction gears, and the drum is prevented from unwinding by means of a ratchet and pawl, or other locking device. Wrapped around the drum 36 and depending therefrom is a lift cord 38 having a hook 40 attached to its lower end.

Hook 40 is adapted to hook onto an eye-bolt 42 that passes through one end of a length of steel pipe 44, which is inserted through the center of the roll of carpeting, 46. The pipe 44 serves as a pole, to keep the roll of carpeting from bending in the middle when one end is lifted from the ground. The carpeting is normally wound onto a cardboard tube of 4 or 5 inch diameter, and in some cases the roll is sufficiently stifi and unbending that it is not necessary to use the pipe 44. In that case, the cord 38 is merely wrapped around the end of the roll, and the hook 40 caught onto the standing part of the rope.

In use, the hoist is placed at one end of the roll of carpeting, with the legs l2, 14 on opposite sides thereof, as best shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The pipe 44 is then inserted into the cardboard tubing core of the roll of carpet, and hook 40 is engaged to the eyebolt 42. The winch handle 34 is then turned by hand, raising the one end of the carpet, while its other end remains on the ground and serves as a third leg to stabilize the hoist. When the roll of carpeting has been raised to the desired height, as shown in FIG. 5, the handle 34 is released, and a dolly of the type shown and described in my pending application, Ser. No. 849,938 is wheeled into place under the roll. As mentioned earlier, the winch 28 is self-locking, and therefore holds the carpet in the raised position when the handle is released. The locking device on the winch is then released to allow the roll of carpeting to settle down onto the dolly, after which the hook 40 is removed from the eyebolt, and the pipe 44 is withdrawn from the roll. The legs of the hoist can now be folded together and the hoist carried away or stowed in a pick-up truck for use in unloading.

While I have shown and described in considerable detail what I believe to be the preferred embodiment of my invention, it will be understood by those skilled in that art that the invention can take various other forms within the scope of the following claims.

lclaim:

l. A portable hoist for raising one end of a large roll of carpeting or the like, so that the roll can be placed on a dolly, said hoist comprising:

a frame including two upwardly converging legs which are placed one on either side ofa roll ofcarpeting at said one end thereof:

means joining said two legs together at the top end thereof, comprising a bracket fixed to the upper end of one of the legs, the other of said legs being pivotally connected to said bracket at a point spaced downwardly from the top end thereof and spaced laterally from said one leg, the upper end portion of said other leg on the side facing said one leg being cut off at an angle so as to lie flat against the adjacent side of said one leg when the legs are spread apart to their maximum angle;

flexible means connecting the bottom ends of said legs together so as to limit the distance that they can spread apart;

a winch mounted on the side of said bracket opposite said legs, said winch having a lifting cord depending therefrom; and

means at the bottom end of said lifting cord for attaching the same to the end of a pole projecting from said one end of the roll of carpeting;

said one end of the roll of carpeting being raised by said lifting cord when said winch is operated, and said roll of carpeting serving as a third leg for said hoist, with its other end bearing on the ground at a point spaced laterally from a line connecting the bottom ends of said two legs. 

1. A portable hoist for raising one end of a large roll of carpeting or the like, so that the roll can be placed on a dolly, said hoist comprising: a frame including two upwardly converging legs which are placed one on either side of a roll of carpeting at said one end thereof: means joining said two legs together at the top end thereof, comprising a bracket fixed to the upper end of one of the legs, the other of said legs being pivotally connected to said bracket at a point spaced downwardly from the top end thereof and spaced laterally from said one leg, the upper end portion of said other leg on the side facing said one leg being cut off at an angle so as to lie flat against the adjacent side of said one leg when the legs are spread apart to their maximum angle; flexible means connecting the bottom ends of said legs together so as to limit the distance that they can spread apart; a winch mounted on the side of said bracket opposite said legs, said winch having a lifting cord depending therefrom; and means at the bottom end of said lifting cord for attaching the same to the end of a pole projecting from said one end of the roll of carpeting; said one end of the roll of carpeting being raised by said lifting cord when said winch is operated, and said roll of carpeting serving as a third leg for said hoist, with its other end bearing on the ground at a point spaced laterally from a line connecting the bottom ends of said two legs. 